Santorini Sun!

This will be short but sweet, because I am really behind...

Saturday we woke up early and took the ferry to Santorini. It was a long ride, but worth it. Santorini is sooooooo beautiful! We had cars waiting for us at the port, and they took us straight to our rental house, where our travel agent Kontantinos was waiting. He showed us around a bit and told us some good places to go on the island. Then we went to the beach. The sand is black and the water is so clear. It is beautiful. The water is still warm which is so nice. We walked around a bit and found a place for supper. We ate at a place that had rancid olive oil, and Joel and Terry ate shark. They enjoyed it. Eric and I fell asleep (at 7, it must have been jet lag) and the others walked around and explored a bit.

The next day we explored a little bit longer, and then took a bus up to the capital city, Fira. It is very nice there. Lots of shops and stuff. We went to the cliffs where the houses are all connected and the roof of one forms the terrace of another. I will post pictures later. We walked down a bit where we finally found the donkeys! I was so excited! The man was very excited and wanted us all to come for a ride. He kept saying " 5 euro up, 5 euro dowm, no problem, very slow" So Eric, Kelly Ann, Eloa and I went. The ride down was scary, their back feet kept slipping on the 4 foot wide stone steps, I though they would go down. But the way up was really fun, and well worth the way down. The others walked down and took the cable cars up (lame). Then we shopped for a while, ate supper at the best place yet, and headed back.

Yesterday we woke up early and climbed the mountain. I felt like I was going to die. I needed to take lots of breaks, but I made it. It was CRAZY windy on the top. Probably like 100km winds at least. You could lean into it and not fall. The two dogs in the picture below, Apollo and Stavros ( I named them) came with us all the way to the top. Kelly Ann was the first down so they went with her. I was the second. I pretty much ran down. It was hard not to. It must have taken me 20 min to get down. (It was probable at LEAST 1.5 hours up, straight walking). Then I blogged while the others swam in the huge waves. I neved got to cause I couldn't find my bathing suit top. Then we went out for supper and later on out for chocolate croissants ( my new favorite pastry).

Today we went to Kamari Beach, were Eric and I stayed last time were we on Santorini. It didn't really look the same, but we did find the shack that we slept by. It was not boarded up this time, but it was closed. We had lunch there, then headed back. At our stop in Fira Eric and I raced around to find a shirt to wear with my bathing suit, and we found one for 10 euros 5 minutes before the bus left. We had to run to get back. We went swimming in the Aegean again. It makes my skin/ eyes/ mind burn. But it was fun. The tatse of salt is so strong and makes me want to vomit every time it enters my mouth. We all had showers and Terry and Eloa made us some very good Spaghetti and sauce for supper. It was better than most restaurant meals I have had out here and a whole lot cheaper. I just found this little internet place on our nightly trip to the bakery. They didn't have any croissants this time. That makes me sad. I also just found out two of my friends are engaged! I am missing so much. DAHLEN DON"T GET MARRIED ON NEW YEARS!! I really want to make it to your wedding. I will be so sad if we miss it, but I guess you can't plan your life around us. I heard it sucks having your wedding on new years anyways. Hehehe...